Chapter 6 - THE DEAD WOMAN’S WARNING
Grant stared at the recorder as though it had accused him directly.
“That isn’t possible.”
He replayed the final sentence.
The person controlling them is Grant.
His expression shifted from shock to anger.
“Someone edited this.”
Detective Cole arrived before dawn and listened to the recording.
He sent it to the forensic audio laboratory for authentication.
Grant paced the library.
“Evelyn would never accuse me of something like this.”
“She may not have been accusing you,” I said.
He turned toward me.
“She said my name.”
“Maybe she was interrupted.”
The recording had ended abruptly.
Evelyn could have been saying the person controlling them was connected to Grant, watching Grant, or trying to destroy Grant.
We did not know.
Lily sat beside the fireplace, drawing another picture.
This one showed a man with two faces.
One face smiled.
The other face had no eyes.
Grant knelt beside her.
“Did Mommy believe I hurt her?”
Lily shook her head.
“Mommy loved you.”
“Then what did she mean?”
Lily pointed at his right hand.
Grant wore a silver signet ring engraved with the Whitmore family crest.
“The man had your ring.”
Grant removed it immediately.
“My father gave Nathaniel and me identical rings.”
Detective Cole leaned forward.
“Nathaniel could have been impersonating you.”
“From behind, in a storm, we look similar.”
Grant’s voice hardened.
“If he wore one of my coats and used my identification, he could have traveled under my name.”
Ramirez entered carrying a laptop.
“We found something else in the estate records.”
The original security log showed Grant’s access card opening the west gate at 10:06 p.m. on the night Evelyn died.
Grant had been attending a charity event in Boston.
Dozens of witnesses had seen him there.
Someone had cloned his access card.
At 10:19 p.m., the same card opened the boathouse.
Lily looked at the screen.
“That was the man with the umbrella.”
Grant called Nathaniel again.
This time, someone answered.
There was no greeting.
Only slow breathing.
“Nathaniel?”
A man’s voice responded.
“You should have left the room sealed.”
Grant gripped the phone.
“Did you kill Evelyn?”
“You always did ask the wrong questions.”
“What is the right question?”
The voice became quieter.
“You should ask why your wife was willing to die before she let you discover what your father built beneath that house.”
The call disconnected.
Police traced it to a pay phone near an abandoned train station.
By the time officers arrived, Nathaniel was gone.
Cole turned toward Grant.
“What did your father build beneath the estate?”
Grant shook his head.
“I have no idea.”
Lily stood from the fireplace.
“I do.”
May you like
She walked toward the hallway.
“There’s a door under Mommy’s room.”
